Image: Photo of Congregation Beth Israel, from their GoFundme.com page.
Congregation Beth Israel of Charlottesville, VA stands one block from the park in which the alt-right/white supremacist rally began last weekend. The synagogue building is undamaged but faces a new set of problems. Because of its location near the now-notorious park, they face a completely new and unbudgeted security situation.
From the GoFundMe.com page of Congregation Beth Israel:
The synagogue, one of the oldest continually operating in the South, was not damaged during this past weekend’s events though CBI is only one block from the park in which the alt-right rally began. Services continued as usual on Friday evening and Saturday morning, with congregants coming together to worship and share.
CBI’s rabbinic leadership were active participants in the planning and completion of the local faith community’s response to the events. They are both safe and are helping the community process what happened, especially as it mourns the three lives lost so senselessly. One CBI member was injured by the terrorist who used his car as a weapon, but is recovering at a local medical center and is expected to do so fully.
Your generous desire to help financially is also sincerely appreciated. Your gift will be applied in part to defray increased security costs and in part to fund CBI’s social justice and social action functions. You may send your gift to CBI, P O Box 320, Charlottesville, VA 22902 or use this site for making your gift online.
I have contributed to the fund, and I invite my readers to join me. If you know of other Charlottesville institutions seeking assistance, I hope you will share them and the appropriate links in the comments.
Thank you for this post. I had already donated to the shul when I heard about it on social media and am glad that others have as well.
Thank you for supporting them, Debra. Kol Yisrael aravim zeh l’zeh – Jews are responsible for each other. We are living in an era when that is taking on some old meanings.